Taking a gander at a rare goose

A pink-footed goose, normally found only in Greenland and Europe, at Lake… (Jonathan Mularczyk, THE…)

January 18, 2013|By Daniel Patrick Sheehan, Of The Morning Call

It was late afternoon, raw and gray, and the Canada geese were returning to Dorney Pond in those V-shaped waves that put you in mind of newsreel footage of World War II bombing raids.

They descended from all compass points, turning their wings and lifting their legs in a sort of mid-air crouch, then landing among the thousands of geese already darkening the water.

The chorus of honks rising from this gathering sounded like the tuning-up of an 8,000-piece orchestra composed of naught but clarinets, and it was tempting to wonder what the red-tailed hawk perched high above on the Dorney Park roller coaster made of it.

Alas, the pink-footed goose wasn't there.

Scott Burnet determined this Wednesday after sweeping the crowd of geese time and again with his binoculars. He saw a red-breasted merganser (a kind of duck) and a couple of mute swans (huge and white and impossible to miss) and a hybrid bird that he deemed part Canada goose and part barnyard goose.

But no pink-footed goose.

Too bad. It's a rare bird indeed, in these parts. Only three have ever been spotted in Lehigh County — two this winter and one in 2009, according to the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society.

That's because the pinkfoot is native to Greenland and usually winters in northern Europe, like all the fanciest birds.

Burnet, of Allentown, who retired from a 30-year career as an electrician and is a full-time birder now, said the one haunting South Whitehall Township's Dorney Pond and Allentown's Lake Muhlenberg in recent weeks was probably blown off course by a storm, and has found safe haven for the winter in the local Canada geese population.

Another pinkfoot has been seen at a quarry near Fogelsville. Birders are sure it is two different geese because they were recorded in the different spots at the same time.

"I'm the goose's baby sitter," said Burnet, 49, whose commitment to the Audubon Society appears to be a source of utter joy and endless energy as he bounces from wood to river to lake in search of avian rarities on a never-ending bucket list.

Indeed, he spotted the pink-footed goose in Lake Muhlenberg, across from his house, Jan. 7, and kept an eye on it there until it apparently grew tired of that spot and moved to Dorney Pond.

The last he saw of it, though, was Monday morning, so it's possible the goose has moved on to yet another waterway.

"It was a regular here," Burnet said. "It comes in with the Canadas."

Nothing uncommon about the Canadas, of course, nor snow geese, which feed all day in the cut cornfields around the Valley and retire to lakes and ponds at night.

The pink-footed goose is smaller than these others. It has a distinctive bill, black at tip and base but pink in the middle, and its feet, of course, are pink.

It wasn't the only rare goose in town, however. A greater white-fronted goose, another Greenland native, has been floating around Trexler Park Lake in Allentown lately.

The excitement such sightings can cause in bird-watching circles can amuse non-birders, but they say there is nothing quite like the thrill of a sighting.

"It could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said Janet Farley of Breinigsville, who had accompanied Burnet on his rounds and spent part of the day in New Jersey admiring some northern lapwings (a kind of plover) before heading to Dorney for a glimpse of the pinkfoot.

Maybe another day. Or maybe another bird will come along to make everyone forget about the goose.

"A coupe of years ago there was a varied thrush in Allentown," said Stephen Kloiber, 19, of Plainfield Township, another birder in Burnet's crew. "That's from the Pacific Northwest."

The chase never ends. Burnet, heading to Trexler Park Lake to check on the greater white-fronted goose, mentioned a type of Alaskan bird that flies for seven days without landing in its annual migration. It fattens up beforehand so it doesn't have to eat and sleeps as its flies, he said.

It sounded like an entry from the Book of Imaginary Beasts, but there is such a creature, a bar-tailed godwit, that flies nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand in an annual feat of incredible endurance.